Revival's Golden Key (14 page)

It is imperative that preachers of today learn how to declare the spiritual Law of God; for, until we learn how to wound consciences, we shall have no wounds to bind with gospel bandages.

Listen to John MacArthur saying the same thing: “God’s grace cannot be faithfully preached to unbelievers until the Law is preached and man’s corrupt nature is exposed. It is impossible for a person to fully realize his need for God’s grace until he sees how terribly he has failed the standards of God’s Law.”

According to John Newton, “Ignorance of the nature and design of the Law is at the bottom of most religious mistakes.” Charles Spurgeon stated, “I do not believe that any man can preach the gospel who does not preach the Law.”

Then he warns, “Lower the Law and you dim the light by which man perceives his guilt; this is a very serious loss to the sinner rather than a gain; for it lessens the likelihood of his conviction and conversion. I say you have deprived the gospel of its ablest auxiliary [its most powerful weapon] when you have set aside the Law. You have taken away from it the schoolmaster that is to bring men to Christ...
They will never accept grace till they tremble before a just and holy Law.
Therefore the Law serves a most necessary purpose, and it must not be removed from its place.”

Look at how the Law did its part in bringing Robert
Flockhart
, one of Spurgeon’s favorite preachers, to the cross:

I consider the language of the apostle in Romans 7:9 not inapplicable to my situation at that time, “but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” Sin, that had been asleep before, came like a giant upon me. I saw myself in the mirror of God’s Law. That Law was spiritual and extended to the thoughts and intents of my heart. Dreadful and blasphemous thoughts, like sparks out of a chimney, now came out of my heart. I was afraid to open my Bible or even to look up, for fear the Lord would send a thunderbolt out of heaven to crush me.

What a translation from darkness to light, from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God’s dear Son! My guilt removed and my pardon sealed, peace flowed like a river into my soul
(The Street Preacher,
pp. 77
,81
).

Perhaps modem evangelism’s reticence to preach what produces fear is simply due to concern about the reaction of sinners. Some may worry that the message may be aligned with what is commonly called “hell-fire” preaching. Yet there is a vast difference between the use of the Law and hellfire preaching. Understandably, the thought of the existence of hell, without the use of the Law to justify its existence, is unreasonable to a sinner’s mind. How could a God of love create a place of eternal torment? Imagine if the police suddenly burst into your home, thrust you into prison, and angrily shouted, “You are going away for a long time!” Such conduct would undoubtedly leave you bewildered and angry. What they have done is
unreasonable.

However, if the law burst into your home and in-stead told you specifically why you were in trouble by saying, “We have discovered 10,000 marijuana plants growing in your backyard. You are going away for a long time!” at least you would understand why you are in trouble. Knowledge of the law you transgressed furnished you with understanding. It makes judgment
reasonable .

Hellfire preaching without use of the Law to show the sinner why God is angry with him will more than likely leave him bewildered and angry—for what he considers unreasonable punishment. However, when we use the Law lawfully, it appeals to the “reason” of sinners. Paul
reasoned
with Felix about judgment to come and his sins, to the point where the governor “was afraid” (Acts 24:25). Hell became reasonable. No doubt the “righteousness” Paul spoke of was the righteousness which is of the Law, and the result was that the fear of God fell upon the heart of his hearer.

Those who come to the Savior with such knowledge are not strangers to fear, even after the cross. They tremble at the cost of their redemption. They gaze with fear-filled hearts at the grizzly sight of Calvary’s cross. They work out their own salvation with “fear and trembling” because they were not redeemed “with silver and gold, but with the precious Blood of Christ.”

In his wonderful book
Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire,
Jim
Cymbala
, rightly frustrated by the lukewarm contemporary Church, says of the disciples:

Once they were empowered on the Day of Pentecost, however, they became the church victorious, the church militant. With the gracious manifestation of God’s Spirit in the Upper Room, the disciples encountered their first audience. Peter, the biggest failure of them all, became the preacher that day. It was no
homiletical
masterpiece, to be sure. But people were deeply convicted—“cut to the heart,” according to Acts 2:37—by his anointed words. Three thousand were gathered into the church that day (p. 92).

The inference is that the key was the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. This is true. However, we have the same Holy Spirit nowadays, and we rarely see such a harvest of souls. Why not? Simply because Peter properly prepared the ground upon which he was sowing. His audience was composed of “devout men” who were gathered at Pentecost to celebrate the giving of God’s Law on Mount Sinai.

Even though these were godly Jews, Peter told them that they were “lawless”—that they had violated God’s Law by murdering Jesus (Acts 2:23). He drove home that fact by saying, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus,
whom you crucified,
both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36, emphasis added). It was then that they saw that their sin was personal. They were “cut to the heart” and cried out for help. Only after the Law convicted them of their sinfulness did Peter offer them grace (v. 38).

This was also the case with Nicodemus and Nathanael. Nicodemus was a leader of the Jews whom Jesus called a “teacher of Israel” (John 3:10). He was therefore thoroughly versed in God’s Law. He also had a humble heart. Here was a leader of the Jews acknowledging the deity of the Son of God (John 3:2). The Law was a schoolmaster to bring this humble, godly Jew to Christ.

According to John 1:47, Jesus said that Nathanael was an Israelite (brought up under the Law) in whom there was “no deceit” (he didn’t twist the Law as the Pharisees did; he no doubt read “the way of God in truth”). The Law also served as a schoolmaster to bring this godly Jew to the Savior.

CHAPTER 12

THE BADGE OF AUTHORITY

A
merica has chosen to live in moral darkness. Its Constitution has replaced Holy Scripture as the point of moral reference. The writings of men have be-come sacred. Contemporary America is no different than the Pharisees of Christ’s time, whose decrees made the Word of God void.

Take, for instance, pornography. Why should our government tolerate such moral perversion? To them, the answer is clear from the writings of our forefathers —it is a “constitutional right” to produce unclean literature, even if it is morally offensive. However, ask a man who advocates pornographic literature if
child
porn is legitimate, and he will usually draw his moral line. Ask him then at what age “immoral” child porn crosses the divide and becomes “morally acceptable.” You will find, with a little
digging, that
the dividing line is the line of
personal pleasure.
He doesn’t gain pleasure from a 13
-
year-old child, but does from a 17-year-old young woman. His love for sin clouds his moral judgment.

The Constitution of the United States is being used for something it was never intended. When a legal document is employed as a moral beacon, we end up with morally blind legislators leading a morally blind nation. Both fall into a dirty ditch. However, the argument for pornography is concluded with one statement from Holy Scripture: “Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Case closed.

When we specifically point to the Scriptures as an ethical beacon, we must make it clear to those who will listen that our express reference is the Moral Law of God. There is great reason for this. In 1989, when I first came to the United States, I was preaching in the open air at Venice Beach, California. Unbeknown to me at that time, the police there wore shorts and rode around on bicycles.

When I stood on a soapbox and began to speak on the edge of the wide sidewalk, a crowd of about 80 people gathered around to listen. Suddenly, a man in shorts stood right in front of me and told me to stop. When I ignored him, he became very indignant and told me once again to stop. I asked, “Are you a police officer?” He then became angry and said through gritted teeth, “If you don’t stop right now, I will arrest you!”

It was then that I noticed a badge on his belt, which told me he
was
an officer of the law. Suddenly, his words carried a great deal of authority! I was elevated above him, and his badge was out of my sight, so I had no respect for him other than what I would give an ordinary civilian.

Those who are representatives of the living God, yet who don’t point to the Law as the core of their authority, will not gain due consideration from the world. Jesus stood before the multitudes as
One
who was a representative of the Law of God. The Bible says the Messiah would bring justice to the earth and that the “coast-lands will wait for His law” (Isaiah 42:4). He repeatedly referred to the Law as the point of His authority, saying, “I did not come to destroy [the Law] but to
fulfill
,” “One jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the Law,” “This is the Law and the Prophets,” “Have you not read in the Law... ?” “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail” (Matthew 5:17
,18
; 7:12; Luke 16:17).

Abortion is wrong. Adultery is wrong. Pornography is wrong. We can shout our moral convictions from the highest housetops, but the world will not listen. It exalts itself above the claims of the Christian faith. It has no incentive to open its heart to what we have to say.

Why did I suddenly take notice of the man who was telling me to stop?
It was his badge that caused me to take notice.
His badge said that if I didn’t heed his words there would be coming judgment. To tell the world that it’s wrong to kill, to steal, to commit adultery, without reference to future punishment, is to point an unloaded cannon.

Some may listen because morality does have positive influences. Theft can ravage a society. Adultery can ruin families. Lying can shatter friendships. In that context morality makes sense. However, when we tell the world to repent because God has “appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness” (Acts 17:31)
,
they will have an inducement to obey the gospel. It will begin to dawn on them that their own eternal welfare is at stake.

Again, for the Church to neglect to point to the Law of God is to hide the badge of our authority from the world. Understandably, sinners will disregard what we have to say. The gospel we preach is only there because God stands by the holiness of the Law. If eternal Law didn’t exist, then there would have been no need for a sacrifice. The Law demands retribution. It was the divine fire of God’s Law that fell on the sacrifice of Calvary.

If the world
knew
that there is an Eternal Law they must face, that the Law necessitates death and hell for transgression,
then
they would seriously consider the claims of the gospel. If they understood that the long arm of the Law will reach right down into the heart of humanity, they would repent. If they knew that Almighty God is angry at the wicked every
day, that His wrath abides on them,
they would flee to the Savior.